Hello,

I am a professional translator currently doing Swedish subtitles for a television mini-series version of "Moby Dick", produced in 2010 and starring William Hurt as Captain Ahab and Ethan Hawke as first mate Mr Starbuck. This forum is my last resort. The series features a shanty sung by the crew as they leave the Pequod to hunt down their first whale, and after five days of intense listening and googling I still can't figure out the lyrics.

The shanty begins with the whalers' cry of "A dead whale or a stove boat!", then continues with the refrain "Blow, boys, blow", but this is where it starts getting muddy. There are three more lines of song, each ending with "Blow, boys, blow" or "Blow, my bully boys, blow", but the lyrics don't seem to fit any of the traditional versions of this shanty.

This is what the lyrics sound like to my weary, non-American ears:

A dead whale or a stove boat
Blow, boys, blow
*End the spear and watch them blow
Blow, my bully boys, blow
*Raging through the churning pie
Blow, boys, blow
*** will surely die
Blow, my bully boys, blow

If anyone out there has the faintest idea of what I'm talking about, or might be able to direct me to someone who does, I would be most grateful.

Best regards,
Rickard Sjöberg
translator and subtitler in Stockholm, Sweden